Climbing wall named after Muhammad Ali Sadpara inaugurated

PESHAWAR: Chief Secretary Kazim Niaz on Thursday formally inaugurated the first climbing wall named after international climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara at Peshawar Sports Complex, with a total cost of Rs10 million under the Prime Minister 1,000 Playground Facilities Project.

The climbing wall has been named after national hero Muhammad Ali Sadpara, a Pakistani high-altitude mountaineer. He was part of the team (which included Italian alpinist Simone Moro) that successfully completed the first-ever winter ascent to the summit of Nanga Parbat in 2016.

Sadpara was notable for having successfully climbed a grand 8000 throughout his career—four of which he had ascended in a single calendar year. Sadpara, along with his 21-year-old son Sajid (who had also climbed K2 in 2019), teamed up with Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri Sigurjónsson and Chilean mountaineer Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto for a joint-ascent of K2, and left the highest camp on the evening of Feb 4, 2021.

Sajid was later forced to descend due to an oxygen regulator malfunction, leaving the other members of the team at the K2 Bottleneck, close to the summit.

Sigurjónsson and Prieto continued their ascent to K2's summit, but did not return by night as planned, and were declared missing on Feb 5, 2021. A rescue mission with two Pakistan Army helicopters was organised on Feb 6, 2021 to search for the team.

On Feb 18, 2021, Pakistani authorities announced that the three men were officially presumed dead, but the search for their remains would continue. Sadpara’s family also declared him as presumably dead on the same day. To pay a rich tribute to Shaheed Sadpara, the KP government decided to name after the Climbing Wall as Sadpara, Chief Secretary Kazim Niaz told media men.

He said that such facilities were going to be developed in Hayatabad Sports Complex, Mardan Sports Complex, Khairabad tourism spot, Nowshera, and Nowshera Sports Complex, Sports Complex Gunj, Football Stadium, Abbottabad, Kohat Sports Complex, Qazi Mohib Sports Complex Bannu, and Ratta Kulachi Sports Complex, Dera Ismail Khan with a cost of Rs111 million.

During inspection, Secretary Sports Abid Majeed said that the installation of the first Climbing Wall was to motivate youngsters toward climbing.

DG Sports KP Asfandyar Khan Khattak and Project Director of Prime Minister 1000 Playground Facilities Project Murad Ali Mohmand accompanied him. The players present on the occasion gave a demonstration of speed wall and national athlete Engr. Paras Ahmad, who also looked after the ongoing work, was the first one to climb the Shaheed Sadpara Wall in a record time.

The climbing facility will give the players a chance to play adventurous sports and will make it easier to hold national and international level competitions in Peshawar. International qualified coaches would also be hired to train the youngsters on the climbing wall, Kazim Niaz added. Earlier, the chief secretary formally inaugurated the wall with climbing demonstrations